Dutch ban takes aim at foreigners buying potAMSTERDAM (AP) — This country of canals and tulips is also famous for “coffee shops” where joints and cappuccinos share the menu. Now, the Netherlands’ famed tolerance for drugs could be going up in smoke. A judge on Friday upheld a government plan to ban foreign tourists from buying marijuana by introducing a “weed pass” available only to Dutch citizens and permanent residents. The new regulation reins in one of the country’s most cherished s...

Group: Blind Chinese activist under US protectionBEIJING (AP) — A blind legal activist who fled house arrest in his rural China village is under the protection of U.S. officials and high-level talks are taking place between the countries about his fate, an overseas activist group said Saturday. The whereabouts of Chen Guangcheng — amid unconfirmed reports that he sought protection at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing — could be a major political complication for the two countries as Secretary of S...

Egypt presidential race boils down to 3 candidatesCAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s presidential race is boiling down to a contest between Hosni Mubarak’s former foreign minister and two Islamists with strong bases of support after the election commission on Thursday released the final list of 13 candidates. None of the front-runners represents the largely liberal and secular youth who drove the uprising that toppled Mubarak’s autocratic regime 14 months ago, dimming their hopes that the winner will bring...

Pakistan deports bin Laden family to Saudi ArabiaISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani authorities deported Osama bin Laden’s three widows and his children to Saudi Arabia early Friday, less than a week before the first anniversary of the unilateral American raid that killed the al-Qaida leader in his hideout in a military town. The departure of the family closed another chapter in an affair that cemented Pakistan’s reputation as a hub of Islamist extremism and cast doubt on its trustworthiness as a We...

Syrian regime, rebels trade blame for deadly blastBEIRUT (AP) — U.N. observers on Thursday inspected the site of an explosion that flattened a block of houses in the central Syrian city of Hama and killed at least 16 people, while the government and the opposition traded blame over the cause of the blast. Syrian state-run media said rebel bomb-makers accidentally set off the explosives. Anti-regime activists said intense shelling by government forces caused the extensive damage. It was imposs...

Charles Taylor conviction sends warning to tyrantsLEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Former Liberian President Charles Taylor became the first head of state since World War II to be convicted by an international war crimes court, a historic verdict that sends a message that tyrants worldwide will be tracked down and brought to justice. The warlord-turned-president was found guilty on Thursday of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for arming Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for “...

Official: Afghan soldier kills US service memberKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan soldier fatally shot an American service member and a local interpreter in southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday, the latest in a string of attacks against U.S. and other foreign forces by their Afghan partners. In the east, meanwhile, three U.S. service members were killed in a bomb attack, according to NATO and a U.S. official. The official confirmed the nationalities on condition of anonymity beca...

Pakistan’s top court convicts prime minister of contemptISLAMABAD (AP) — The Supreme Court convicted Pakistan’s prime minister of contempt on Thursday for refusing to reopen an old corruption case against the country’s president, but spared him a prison term in a case that has stoked political tensions in the country. The ruling against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani appeared to be a compromise, but could still mean problems for him because he has been convicted in a court. That means he could f...

Pope stakes out church’s course entering 8th yearVATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI began his eighth year as pope on Tuesday after spending the waning days of his seventh driving home his view of the Catholic Church, with a divisive crackdown on dissenters and an equally divisive opening to a fringe group of traditionalists. The coming year may see more of the same as the Vatican gears up to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 church meetings that res...

Annan calls Syria situation ‘bleak’UNITED NATIONS (AP) — International envoy Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday that the situation in Syria is “bleak” and expressed alarm at reports that government troops are still carrying out military operations in towns where U.N. observers are not present. He expressed particular concern at media reports that government troops entered the central city of Hama on Monday after U.N. observers departed, firing automatic weapons a...

Breivik claims ’racist’ plot to cast him as insaneOSLO, Norway (AP) — Anxious to prove he’s not insane, confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik told a court Monday that questions about his mental health are part of a racist plot to discredit his extreme anti-Muslim ideology. Breivik, who has admitted to killing 77 people in a bombing and youth camp massacre, said that no one would have asked for a psychiatric examination had he been a “bearded jihadist.” “But because I am a militant nati...

Cabbie unlikely celebrity in Colombia sex scandalARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) — The Secret Service sex scandal has spawned X-rated jokes, inspired a spicy song set to a local Caribbean beat, and made an unlikely celebrity of a 42-year-old taxi driver who lives with his mother and now seems to be in hiding. With no other decent leads locally, scoop-hungry journalists fought all week for the favor of Jose Pena, the president of the Hotel Caribe taxi stand who happened to drive home the prostitute w...

Shortages could slow down US auto productionDETROIT (AP) — The U.S. auto industry, already stretching to meet rising demand for cars and trucks, is facing shortages of parts and materials that could limit the number of new vehicles in showrooms later this year and crimp a historic turnaround. The most immediate problem — a shortage of a crucial plastic resin, caused by an explosion March 31 at a plant in Germany — could surface in a few weeks. And later this year or beyond, automakers c...

Fake Bieber accused of abusing NJ girl onlineTORONTO (AP) — A Canadian man accused of posing as teen idol Justin Bieber and coaxing a young girl to perform sex acts online may have victims in up to five countries, authorities in Canada and the U.S. said Wednesday. Lee Moir, 34, is already facing a slew of child pornography charges in connection with his alleged interactions with a 12-year-old girl from New Jersey, but officials in that state suspect his activities had a much wider scope....

US, NATO ready plan to hand off Afghanistan combatBRUSSELS (AP) — Several NATO allies promised Wednesday to underwrite Afghanistan’s armed forces after foreign troops depart, as the United States and other nations plan to pull away from the front lines in Afghanistan next year. U.S. officials were at pains to show that the pressure to close down an unpopular war will not leave Afghanistan’s fragile government and unsteady military in the lurch. “There is no change whatsoever in the timeline,”...

UN monitors flee Syrian protest after gunfireBEIRUT (AP) — Syrian security forces opened fire Wednesday on anti-regime demonstrators surrounding the cars of a U.N. team meant to monitor a shaky cease-fire, sending the observers speeding off and protesters dashing for cover, according to activists and amateur videos. The fresh violence in a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital, provided the first public glimpse of the work of the small team struggling to reinforce the international comm...

Norway killer expounds on fanatical views at trialOSLO, Norway (AP) — In a scene unimaginable in many countries, Norway’s worst mass killer got the chance to explain his fanatical views to the court and the world, unrepentant and dressed in a business suit. Prosecutors and lawyers for the families of his 77 victims even shook his hand. Two days into Anders Behring Breivik’s terror trial, the way Norway’s legal system deals with a confessed killer who rejects its authority is baffling — even t...

Bin Laden’s family to leave Pakistan overnightISLAMABAD (AP) — Osama bin Laden’s three widows and their nine children were scheduled to be deported to Saudi Arabia overnight, almost a year after U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaida chief at a compound in northwest Pakistan, their lawyer said Tuesday. The family was detained by Pakistani authorities immediately after the pre-dawn raid on May 2 in Abbottabad. The American commandos left them behind but took bin Laden’s body, which they later...

Cuban Harley fanatics hold first nationwide rallyVARADERO, Cuba (AP) — A throaty roar and an ear-splitting siren cut through the balmy sea air of this Cuban resort town as Luis Enrique Gonzalez gunned the engine of his vintage Harley-Davidson Knucklehead, which was a police motorcycle in another life before the 1959 revolution. “I love everything about it. It’s like my girlfriend,” Gonzalez said, showing off the fire-red bike, a sticker of iconic guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara peeling from ...

US, Canada alone at summit in Cuba stanceCARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) — U.S. President Barack Obama got the expected lectures Saturday from Western Hemisphere leaders over his insistence on vetoing Cuban participation in future summits and his refusal to abandon a drug war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and undermined governments. The opening salvo came from the summit’s host, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who reiterated the message nearly all his colleagues brough...